Bourbon Barrel (home) Brewery and Bar Build

[Wookey Jack]

I am in the process of finishing off the basement in our house that we built about 5 years ago. When I was in the planning stages of the house, the thought was that I would either get some sort of 3 kettle setup or something similar. I had a gas line and a 220V outlet put in. I have since discovered the Grainfather and have been adapting my plans to accommodate this setup. The process of finishing the basement will incorporate a number of features that will enhance my brewing and serving setup. I plan to update this post with my current setup and ideas/plans for the build out. Consecutive posts will provide updates on my progress.

 

[day_trippr]

Greetings @Wookey Jack, and welcome to the forums at HomebrewTalk
Will be following your build!

Cheers!

 

[Wookey Jack]

So I thought it was about time that I actually get some content posted in here. So this is kind of what the rough plan is for the bar, don't pay attention to the back of the bar as I don't have that laid out in Sketchup yet.



There is a utility room in the works on the other side of the wall from the bar. In the utility room adjacent to the bar/taps will be a keezer that feeds through the wall to the taps. My brewery is upstairs in the Laundry room, which is upstairs, basically above the back of the bar. All of the large equipment and grain will be stored on shelving around the corner in the garage. Smaller equipment will be stored in the brewery. The conical fermenters will be on a shelf in the utility room adjacent to the back of the bar. I am planning on running a PVC chase through the laundry room counter down into the utility room for feeding wort directly into the fermenters. This would allow me to run transfer tubing into it and pull it out when it needs replaced. I thought about running copper down to it but I worry about keeping it clean with all of the hops and whatnot that would be going through it.

So the thought is that I will grind in the garage, brew in the laundry room, ferment/keg/bottle/serve in the basement utility room/bar.

I plan on using building my own draft tower from parts and putting a bar prep sink underneath of it instead of a drip tray. There will be a large sink for washing kegs/carboys etc next to it in the middle of the bar. They make a wire rack for the sink that would sit on the counter and allow me to rest a glass on it.

 

[Wookey Jack]

Now for some pictures of the current progress:

We dug out the floor below where the fermenters will go and put in a floor drain.



This allowed is to locate where the main train pipe went from here so we were able to dig another hole for a floor drain for the sink. Once the concrete was back in, we were able to finish up framing the wall for the utility room.

 

[Wookey Jack]

Man, it's been a while since I have posted an update...

The knee wall for the bar is in and I epoxied the joints in the equipment/fermentation room and put down some garage floor paint.

 

[Wookey Jack]

I finally got my brewing area cleaned up well enough to take some pictures. Over the years I have installed an exhaust fan in the ceiling, an RO system under the sink and a lab faucet in the sink. I was able to find a Plano tool box that perfectly fit in the shelves. I also installed 2 outlets from the laundry room circuit as well as another one (in the middle) from the garage circuit. I figured that would give me more options and keep me from overloading either one. Both circuits are on GFI/AFCI at the breaker. I have an idea on how I can add 240V over here if needed.



The fermenter shelf is installed and last weekend the chase from the brewery to the fermenter shelf was run. This will allow me to transfer directly from the Grainfathers (plan to get another one at some point) into the Grainfather conical fermenters (plan to get another one of these as well). There is enough space under the fermenter shelf to accommodate the Grainfather glycol chiller if I ever decide to get it (probably will).

 

[Wookey Jack]

I installed the plumbing for my fermenter shelf. With it, I will be able to fill two fermenters with hot or cold water and drain them out into the floor drain. I will also be able to fill the mop bucket if needed. It is not hooked up to water yet, it will get done when I have the plumbing to my bar put in. Hopefully my joints don't leak!